As the level of life is improved, a variety of leisure activities are increased. Among these leisure activities, leisure activities associated particularly with water in the summer, for instance water-skiing that is racing between small-sized boats having a motor, have recently undergone a sharp increase in popularity. In this manner, as various water leisure activities employing a small-sized boat as indispensable equipment have increased, the small-sized boats are also subjected to abrupt distribution. Thus, expense of and demand for the small-sized boats have abruptly increased as well. In particular, in the case of the small-sized boat used for boat racing, the small-sized boat is operated at severe conditions of high speed, so that more frequent and rapid repair is required. However, few apparatuses are suitable to easily and rapidly hoist for the purpose of repairing various small-size boats including ones for boat racing. As described above, the fact that few apparatuses are suitable for hoisting and repairing small-sized boats is because various small-sized boats used for life-saving, inland patrol, and leisure activities are operated in rivers. In particular, since the small-sized boats are mainly operated in rivers or lakes, berthing facilities for anchoring and mooring the small-sized boats, particularly stationary facilities using wood, steel beam, concrete, etc. as in a quay or wharf, are generally unsuitable thereto except in special circumstances.
Thus, a barge that can freely move and anchor or moor small-sized boats as needed is generally used as a berthing facility in rivers or lakes. A conventional hoisting apparatus includes an apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as “basic hoisting apparatus”) that installs an inclined ramp extending from the barge into the water, hooks a wire on the small-sized boat approaching an outer end of the inclined ramp, and winds the wire using, for instance, a winch, so that the small-sized boat hooked by the wire is gradually hoisted along the inclined ramp.
The basic hoisting apparatus is the simplest structure, and has an advantage in that the cost is low. However, two or more lines of wire must be manually hooked on two or more portions of the small-sized boat and be hoisted one by one, and the small-sized boat and the winch are still connected with each other by the wire after the small-sized boat is hoisted. In the case in which the force pulling the wire to hoist the small-sized boat is unbalanced, the left-hand and right-hand sides of the small-sized boat become unbalanced and lean to one side, impeding the repair according to the circumstances. Since the inclined ramp extends from the barge into the water, the inclined ramp has a possibility of being collided with by another small-sized boat going through the vicinity of the barge.